Freebie for you!

Hi gorgeous reader,

I have met many aspiring artists who are at a loss how to get started painting.  They may have overcome the "I don't know how to draw" or the "I have no talent" excuses and gathered some art supplies and are ready to go, but they are afraid to start.  I call it the "white page syndrome."  Not that I invented that, but I can relate.  Many a time I have stared at a blank page in my journal or a canvas without any idea what to put there.  Color is always good of course, but shapes can lead to new experiences, and nothing has to be perfect.  So many are waaay too critical of their efforts.  Just remember that most artists started from scratch, literally.

I like to meditate, and it has been a habit of mine for many years.  I decided to give away a simple 10 minute audio art meditation with this newsletter sign up.  I would love to hear what you thought of the audio!  Was it helpful?  Did it inspire you to get into the paints?  You can leave a comment here or on my FB page, HERE.
To sign up for my newsletter and receive the freebie audio, click HERE.

If you already are on my mailing list, comment below and I will send you the audio via email.

Thank you for stopping by!  Happy art-ing. :)

Maria

Art by some of my favorite artists...

Who is your favorite artist, or type of art?

I have a long list of favorite artists, but you would have to spend a week reading this post, so I will keep it short and sweet.  Lately I have been doing a lot of art journaling and mixed media.  Everything seems to go in cycles, so acrylic paintings could be next.  Here are some of my favorite artists:

Iris Fritschi-Cussens lives in London, England.

There is a tutorial on how to make this lovely image on her website.  She also has lots of fabulous how-to videos.  Check out her website HERE.

Another favorite is Christina Colwell in Oregon.  I love her whimsical style and happy colors!  

You can check out her Facebook art page HERE.

Tracy Verdugo is from Australia.  I love it that you can find artists from all over the world via the Internet!  She is teaching a really cool ecourse starting on September 24.

Check out her Facebook art page HERE.

Tamara Laporte has a massive blog hop going.  Check out all the wonderful art.

This picture is by Jane Davenport.  She is part of the blog hop and ecourse:

This looks like a really cool course.  Lots of great teachers involved. 

Check out Tamara's Facebook page HERE.

More about the Life Book course HERE.

Willowing and Friends community page on Facebook, HERE.

Those are just a few of my favorites.  I'm a huge fan of Flora Bowley too. Here's a short 

video of her by Zipporah.  Click HERE.

Who gives you inspiration, or nudges to keep on going with your art?  Please comment 

and share.  :)  Have a great day full of inspiration!  

Guest post by fabulous Donna Higton

I like to change it up in here sometimes, so I'm delighted to introduce Donna Higton, an inspirational speaker and life coach.  Here is her post on inspiration:

Follow Your Inspiration

We all have inspired ideas all the time – usually those really random ideas you get at 2am that make perfect sense in the middle of the night, but wither in the cold light of day.  They’re the ones we often talk ourselves out of, with our logical, linear, sensible training.  But if you shrug off that training and start listening to those random thoughts…and then following them, you will enter a new and magical world.

I am not exaggerating.  Inspiration is a beautiful thing.  It’s your soul talking to you.  It’s the Divine Spark.  It’s creative juice.  It’s fun! Everyone I know who follows their inspiration – whether that involves creating or travelling or cooking or arranging events or singing or whatever – enjoys life more than those who don’t.

Not following inspiration makes the inspired voice go really quiet – sometimes so quiet that you can’t hear it anymore.  And that is beyond saddening for me.  Because that inspiration is a spark of joy that can light the fire of loving life!  Your inspired ideas will take you somewhere…you may not know where, but they will take you somewhere…and often places you never thought you would go!

What happens as a result of you following your inspiration is out of your sphere of influence – you can’t make people buy your book or your program or support the business you were inspired to begin.  But following your inspiration may bring unseen and often unsung benefits. Starting my blog was the beginning of a journey that helped me to become the writer I’d always wanted to be – I honed my craft, and in doing so, I’ve created a staggering body of work!

Those articles and blog posts are always there, ready to help whoever they’re for.  (Including me!)  That blog has brought me so much joy, it’s challenged me, it’s helped me to start to get over my fear of being ‘seen’ in the world, it’s helped me to get more comfortable championing my work, it’s helped me meet people I’d never have met, it’s led to some interesting collaborations, it’s helped and inspired thousands of people over the last 8 years.

If I only judged the ‘success’ of that inspired action by how much money the blog brought in, I would have missed the point by a country mile.  And I probably would have stopped long before all the benefits and gifts became obvious. 

Inspired action works that way – you don’t know what amazing gifts it will bring you, but it will bring gifts.  It’s inspired.  It’s given to you by the Divine, whatever your definition of that is (God, inner self, universe, muse).  Do you trust the Divine?  Do you trust that what you’re inspired to create and do is given to you?

And if so, why would you hesitate?  Why would you throw the gift of inspiration back in the face of the Divine?  Speaking for myself, I have hesitated out of fear, out of lack of confidence in me, I’ve thrown the gift back because I didn’t understand inspiration, because I didn’t trust the Divine, I’ve done it because frankly, it seemed too easy! 

Inspired action and creation is easy.  It’s fun.  It’s joyful.  It’s sometimes challenging, and your brain and heart and soul feel like they’ve been wrung out by the effort involved.  But ultimately it feels ‘right’, and you just find yourself doing it (even if your brain is arguing that you don’t want to write this book or take this action, 10 minutes later, you are!)

Inspiration works for you…and if you follow it, your life will become a delicious adventure of inspired action and joyful days. It may not bring the results you think you want, your return may not be what you expect…but it may just be even better.  Trust the gift of the Divine/muse/inner self/universe and follow your inspiration, wherever it may lead.

                                                                -----------

Bio

Donna, better known as "Donnaonthebeach" helps women who KNOW there is more to life to fall in love with their lives, and make their Dreams a Reality along the way.  If you enjoyed this article, make sure you go to http://www.donnaonthebeach.com to get a free copy of Donna’s new book “Fall In Love With Life”.

Thank you, Donna.  :)  Those words truly resonated with me.  

A matter of taste?

How do you become a better artist/writer/musician?  That's a question I've been asking myself lately.  Is it by tapping into a deeper source, or just by keeping applying oneself to one's chosen art? Or is it a matter of taste?  I could ask how did Leonardo Da Vinci become a better artist?  I'm sure he didn't plan to become what he became, a true Renaissance man, and that word wasn't even invented in those days.  And what about Vincent Van Gogh's art?  He didn't make a dime off of his art, and now it sells for millions.  He lived frugally and was often starving, but he "saw" his world in such a compelling way that when we look at his art, you can FEEL what it was like on a hot summer day in Provence.  I admire him because he left all contemporary art "rules" behind and painted what he saw and felt, in a simple, yet wholly sophisticated way.  I would dare to suggest art was his calling, and despite his problematic life, he pursued that with his whole being.

Maybe that's what it takes to be GREAT, even if the supposed skills are not there. What I mean by that is the contemporary consensus belief of what "good" art is.  I would say that practicing one's craft/skills is important, but genius happens when all is lost and something can emerge and manifest out of the wreckage of what "should be."

Some would call that a spiritual experience, and maybe it is.  Also, all the cumulative experimentation will lead somewhere.  Persistence pays, but the ultimate expression is hidden until the moment it appears.

I can't really speak for musicians, but if you're good at your instrument, maybe inspiration strikes because you don't have to think about chords, or the instrument that is your voice.  I was stunned when reading Mick Jagger's biography by Norman Philip to learn that The Stones' manager in the early days used to lock Jagger and Richards in a room and not let them out until they had come up with songs for their next album.  They winged something that became some of the most loved songs over the last fifty years.  I don't know if this is a true portrayal of what happened; I'm only mentioning what I read in the biography.

What is true about all artists of any kind is that we put ourselves out there.  We might not be in the league with The Rolling Stones, but they started out as young men being truly passionate about the American blues music.  I watched a video about a new song from Playing for Change (which is a movement I love,) that has a recent song by Keith Richards.  He is his most authentic; he is just himself. After sooo many years, you can still feel his passion for the music.  I admire that, and I'm grateful to be able to hear the song.  It inspires me.  Music is alive all over the planet, and I'm GRATEFUL that music is tying us together.  Music touches the soul more than anything.

So, coming back to art, and writing, how to become better at it?  Since I do both, I'm always up against what is going on.  I've learned to let it flow.  No one has ever said anything bad about my art, and you know how much people liked it by the traffic to any particular art piece, and how fast it sold. All I can do is strive to be authentic in all that goes on the canvas.

Writing is more vulnerable to negative criticism, but again, all you can do is your best, and let it all hang out.  Writing is an instrument, a craft, that can be mastered, but then the artistry comes in and makes something special, or not so special.  We all know what we like, but why do we like it? It's not the writer's style so much as their heartfelt need to put their idea on paper.  Good style helps of course...  And we all know the books we put down because we could not finish them. Writing has to touch a particular chord in us as we read it.  Some books touch a lot of people, and some are forgotten on deep dusty shelves.  Is it taste?

It is a very subjective business, and we artists can only be where we are at the time of our evolution and just stick to our passion to create.  That is the spiritual part, to create because you must, and it consumes you more than any other occupation on earth.  That is what makes mastery.  The masters never doubted their own need to create.  They probably questioned the quality just as I'm doing right now, but they held true to their calling.

Are there levels of mastery?  Not everyone can be a Da Vinci or a Michelangelo, or a mega rock band, but does taste form what is mastery of artistic expression today?  Media seems to think so, but I tend to differ.  I like what speaks to my soul. Children's art always does, but going beyond that... What is your take on creativity and success?